Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Leon’s Selects Shopify to Expand E-commerce Strategy
October 29,
2018 by Laurie Northington in Business Strategy, Industry 
Canadian furniture and appliance retailer Leon's Furniture Limited (TSX:LNF) has selected e-commerce company Shopify, to power all of the company's portfolio of online stores, including leons.ca, thebrick.com and furniture.ca on the Shopify Plus platform, which powers large and growing online stores and brands.
In addition to hosting and operating its online stores on the new Shopify platform, Leon’s (LFL) is also working on the development of dedicated apps to improve customers' online shopping experience.
The enhancements include intelligent room planners, virtual decorating, and augmented reality capabilities where shoppers can place items from the online store against a backdrop of their own rooms. Additional features that will be offered to customers on LFL's online stores include instant deferred payment options, and enhanced delivery features, among others.
"Leon's Furniture Limited has been an e-commerce player for nearly two decades. Working with a leading provider like Shopify puts us on the right track for continued success," said Edward Leon, president and CEO. "Emerging technologies and changing shopping behavior forces retailers to re-think how they operate and transform their business to create a truly seamless shopping experience between the online website and traditional brick and mortar store.”
“To win in the retail space, and specifically in the industry segment in which LFL operates, requires mastering both our chain-wide in-store customer experience and our e-commerce offerings across all of our online properties," added Leon.
LFL selected Shopify because of its ability to demonstrate the platform's dependability, adaptability and value. Additionally, both companies share a strong willingness and commitment to work toward the customer having the best shopping experience.
"As a fiercely Canadian company, Shopify is proud to have been chosen by the iconic Canadian entity, Leon's Furniture. This is a great example of how a large, brick and mortar retailer is working with Shopify to innovate its online shopping experience," said Loren Padelford, vp and general manager with Shopify.
While often associated with the traditional retail store model, LFL has been active in the online space and has seen growth and potential in e-commerce.
"If we compare our online operations during the past decade to those of other pure-play e-commerce retailers, our e-commerce division shows outstanding performance with a CAGR of 45 percent topline growth coupled with EBITDA margins of 18 percent" said Constantine Pefanis, CFO at LFL.